Help needed in Hastings

[stuwhitfield]

Hi All,

We are new on here having recently(ish) moved to Hastings from Brighton....

I have replaced the head gasket on 'Oldy' our 91 J reg auto and now car wont start....

The head went to the machine shop to be checked and came back with a clean bill of health. Have fitted the genuine copper gasket from minispares, and followed the procedure in Haynes to replace everything (I think!)

I have a spark at the plugs (and have replaced them for new ones) and fuel at the carb.

Engine turns over fine but will not fire.

any ides what I could have done wrong?
I am a mechanical novice however am eager to learn but maybe have bitten off more than I can chew! Iwould like to rule out it being a novices simple mistake... is there anybody in the Hastings area that could come and have a look and maybe try and help get it going again? It has been suggested that perhaps there is no compression so would it be worth buying a compression tester?

thanks

Stu and Rie

[Deleted]

:)Have you put the ht leads on in the right order?

When you look at the distributer the top ht lead plug on the cap is your number 1, so this lead should go to the sparkplug nearest the radiator, this is cylinder number 1. now working clockwise around the distributer the next one is number 3, so lead needs to go on the third sparkplug from the rad., next one is number 4, so lead goes to sparkplug furthest away from rad. last is number 2.

Then the center one goes to coil.

Do you havea carb or injection? It might differ on the injection, but the above is for a carb mini.

im pretty sure that the above is correct, but hold on someone might tell you something different.

daz

[oldgit]

Soz Daz but top lead on dizzy is not nessessssaaaryyyyley ;D no one . If new head fitted as someone has said might be no or low compression ,HAVE YOU RESET TAPPETS ?? if valve gap not right you might well have no compression.

[Rachel]

Jun 25, 2009 19:35:26 GMT oldgit said:

If new head fitted as someone has said might be no or low compression ,HAVE YOU RESET TAPPETS ?? if valve gap not right you might well have no compression.

Tony had that problem when he changed his head gasket. Shawn diagnosed and fixed the problem in no time. ;D

[stuwhitfield]

Thanks for the replies guys....
Its a carb. I think I've got it firin in the right order, set no.1 cylinder to its top position and used the rotor arm t work out what lead that would spark, however you have said working clockwise around the distrubter-my arm spins anticlockwise??? or have i got that completly wrong?
I haven't reset the tappets-is this an easy procedure? do I need any specific tools?

[Miniböttcher]

you are right it does turn anti clock wise , i think

tapets are easy, the haynes manual tells you the order, you just need a feeler guage, spanner and screw driver,

magic sparking bolt!!!!!!!!!!

was there anything else,taken off, adjusted, moved while you took the head off.?

you replaced the plugs, are they the correct ones and are they gapped correctly, ?

do you have a spark from every plug?

you seem to cover alot of the first things alot of us would try,
go back over from the start check again there maybe something you missed,

[Deleted]

imm gonna check mine tommoro now lol, see which way it spins

[stuwhitfield]

Nothing else taken off.
I assume they are the correct plugs and the are gapped correctly-bought them from the local motor factors I could try using the old ones again...
Yes every lead is sparking with a spare plug and every new plug is sparking when removed from the engine. I'll buy a feeler guage tomorrow after work and have a go at adjusting the tappets.

[stuwhitfield]

Dr Divval did the trick! - had to set the valve clearances and the timing was out...All up and running now so fingers crossed it'll be ok. thanks for replies guys.

[mccarefree]

Daz, Have you ever wondered why you've got 1 forward gear but 4 reverse? Hehehe! :-)